That's why We're Here
by Suchfatality
Summary: Bella lives with her mom and Phil in sunny, warm Pheonix. One day Phil has news that makes Bella choose to banish herself to cold, wet Forks to live with her dad. There she makes friends with someone from a mysterious family. AU Canon pairings
1. Four Words

_A/N I do not own twilight, Stephenie Meyer does. I am merely borrowing her characters for my story.  
Please read and leave a review._

**They say that opposites attract, but when you start to look at everyone around you, you start to notice how similar everyone really is. So if that's the case, if everyone is really quite similar, how are you supposed to find 'the one' that one person who was made for you?**

I stared at the screen. I hadn't even paid attention to what I was typing. I read through it several times.

"What you doing?" I turned to see Renee stood in the doorway, swinging on her feet like a little child would. Renee was my mom but she didn't act like most moms I knew. Most of the time she acted like the child and that meant I had to be the parent. A lot of people at my school thought it was weird that I couldn't go see a movie or go to the beach with them because I had to get tea for my mom or meet her after her latest hobby class. Lately she'd taken up pottery. She'd been bringing home a lot of her vases, cups, bowls, if it could be made out of clay, she'd made it. Well at least tried to, sometimes I'd say it was a lovely bowl and Renee would look upset and tell me its a vase.

"Nothing much now. I was doing my English assignment but I've finished that now. I was just typing random rubbish. How was your class?" I looked closely at Renee noticing she didn't have any pottery with her today.

"Your too good for that school. Class? Oh yeah, well I was on my way to pottery but I saw a flyer for a pilates class starting so I headed over to see what it was like and it's great fun. I already feel better after on lesson. I think I'm going to stop pottery for now. Maybe pick it up another time. Oh and then on my way home Phil called. He says he's got some great news to tell us at dinner. Now what am I going to do for dinner?" Phils my mom's younger husband. He's not my dad. My dad lives in the deepest darkest hole of Washington, Forks. It's population was something ridiculous like 3,120 people at the last census. Here, in Pheonix, there are about one and a half million people. And my dad is the chief of that tiny, tiny population. I don't see my dad that much anymore. I used to have to see him most holidays, I'd go down to Forks and spend time there with him where he'd normally take me on his fishing trips. I managed to put an end to those traumatic events by putting my foot down and telling mom I didn't want to go anymore. He'd come and stayed with us in Pheonix a few times but that had been a bit too awkward and he hadn't like the change of being 1 in 3000 odd to one in 1.5 million. My mom left my dad when I was little and she moved out here to Pheonix where she met Phil a while later. Phil's a minor league baseball player, and he's travelling around a lot lately.

"I've put some dinner in the oven, steak and potatoes okay?" I grinned at my mom.

"You are an angel. I'm going to go get changed for dinner, you should too." She smiled and with that she turned and whirled off upstairs. I sighed, printing off my English assignment. I stuffed the sheets of paper in my school bag without looking and ran upstairs to my room. I lay down on my bed glancing out the window at the bright sun in the clear blue sky. It looked so peaceful and quiet out there, if only that's the way the world really was. I sighed and headed to the bathroom for a shower.

Once I was cleaned up and dressed again in some jeans and a t-shirt and my brown hair brushed down I headed downstairs. Being the lackadaisical person I am I tripped over my own feet and fell down the last couple of stairs, landing on my back and sliding down them all. I reached the bottom and pushed myself up to my feet as Phil and my Renee rushed in.

"You okay?" Phil asked Renee came over to me.

"Yeah I'm fine, the usual you know." I dusted myself off a little then smiled at both of them. "Have you taken the steak and potatoes out?" Renee stared at me for a while then at Phil and then at me again, then she shrieked running into the kitchen. She opened the oven door and smoke billowed out. She dumped it on the side and opened the window quickly to try and let out some of the smoke. Phil and I laughed watching mom reacting so quickly. She turned to look at us both and joined in laughing too.

"Tell you what, why don't we eat out tonight? My treat." Phil grinned, coming to the rescue of mom, as he always did. Phil grabbed his car keys and we all headed out to the car. Phil drove us to the restaurant down the road. We'd been here once before for Phil and mom's anniversary and it was really nice, but also really expensive. I started to wonder what news it could be that Phil was prepared to pay an arm and a leg for a meal. Thoughts ran through my mind ranging from really obscure to new additions to the family. None of the thoughts I was sure how I'd feel about but I decided not to guess, these two always had a way of coming out with completely the unexpected.

We were seated at a window seat, looking out over a lot of the city lights. I sat opposite the window and Phil and mom sat opposite me. After we'd ordered mom and Phil were grinning at each other like idiots.

"Come on then. What is it?" I grinned at them. They looked at each other a little longer then at me.

"Well, I got a new job." Phil looked really excited.

"That's great Phil, congratulations." I smiled, genuinely happy for him and I could see mom was too.

"Well I say a new job, it's still baseball but another team saw potential in me and they want me now. It's going to mean a lot more travelling for me but your mom's said that she doesn't. She'll still stay with you so you won't be left alone kid, you don't need to worry about that. And this team are going to pay me a lot more so you can both come and stay with me at weekends. Well that's if you want to, of course you don't have to. It's up to you but I know your mom would like it. I know it'll be hard at first on your mom, travelling all the time but I'm sure we'll find a way for it all to work." I hadn't heard most of what Phil had said. Little bits were sinking in, the rest was still being digested. It would all still be the same as before, nothing would change. Phil would still travel, but now it would be further and from the sounds of it more often, mom would still miss him a lot and be really unhappy because she missed him. She would still feel obliged to stay at home though, because of me. No matter how much she loved seeing Phil, whenever she visited him at the moment she'd still hurry back so that she'd be there at night for me. She was strained and tired from just travelling short journeys, now it was going to be further. How would she cope? I knew what I had to do, the solution.

"I'll move to Forks." And with that, I signed away the rest of my life, ended the evenings conversation and ruined another meal, all in one go with four words.


	2. Comfortable Silence

After the meal that night, I felt like I'd been walking on eggshells. Phil thought I hated him, mom thought I hated her and if I was quite honest, I didn't know how I felt. I'd sat down with them and we'd called my dad and told him everything, he of course was ecstatic, I left out a few details, not wanting to upset him with the fact that I was only moving in with him because I had no other choice. It wouldn't do well to upset someone else, especially the person I was going to live with now. After the phone call mom and Phil helped me get my flights and mom took me shopping for some new clothes. I couldn't exactly wear my nice Pheonix summer clothes in wet, cold, dreary Forks.

"Mom, you do know I don't hate you right?" I asked her while I was trying on a sweater.

"Oh honey, I know that. I know why you're doing this, and I'm very grateful but you don't have to go. We can cancel the tickets, your dad will understand I'm sure. I'm sure we can figure something out." I heard Renee saying.

"But mom, that's just it. I do have to go. It's about time I went back to Forks. If I stayed you'd have to stay with me, not because I needed you to but because you needed to. I can't to that again, it's bad enough with Phil only a couple of hours away, when he goes further you'd be running on empty all the time and that's not fair for any of us. So I have to go." I was glad that I had gotten used to lying. It wasn't about time I went back to Forks, I'd never wanted to go back to Forks yet here I was acting as if I did. But I had to keep reminding myself, I wasn't doing this for myself, I was doing it for mom, for mom and Phil.

I continued to tell myself that all the way to me getting on the plane. I didn't feel like just three days ago I'd told mom and Phil I was going to forks, and now here I was about to board the plane that would take me to that dreaded place. They'd tried to convince me to stay for longer to get more organised but I knew I had to do it right away otherwise I'd let myself get talked out of it. So here I was, Monday morning catching a plane to my new, well old, home instead of going to school like I would have been if nothing had changed. At this point I wasn't sure if was glad about Phil's career change anymore. But now it was too late. I sat down in my seat on the plane and looked out the window to the airport trying to see if I could see Phil and Renee and even though I couldn't, I waved them goodbye anyway. And as we took off, I waved goodbye to Pheonix, Arizona, the warmth and the sun.

The plane landed and I was surprised to see the sun, but then I remembered that I was in Seattle, this was where the plane stopped first.  
Now I had to get another, smaller plane to Port Angeles, where my dad would pick me up and drive me to forks. It would be that drive that saw the end of the sun. I found my way to the right gate and headed to the plane. Boarding this plane was a lot quicker but not as nicer, it was a lot more cramped and I had less leg room, but then I suppose I had more important things I should have been worrying about. Like school. There was no way that I would be able to start straight away surely, I mean it's not even as though is the beginning of semester. I cursed myself mentally, wishing I'd thought this through more. Maybe I should have left it another couple of weeks. No, I wouldn't have done it. I would have given in to mom and then she'd have been unhappy because she had to be split between me and Phil. No I had to do this. That was all there was to it. As soon as I'd gotten settled in my seat and found a comfortable way to position my legs we were being told to put our seatbelts back on as we were coming in to land.  
Suddenly my stomach started spinning like a washing machine and I started feeling really funny. Was I nervous about seeing my dad? Really? Well this was weird. Or maybe it was the ominous feeling of going into a place I didn't really know that well but had hated most of my life. We landed with a couple of bumps and came to a standstill. Passengers started to get off and I knew I should but somehow I couldn't force myself to my feet. I looked outside and there was his cruiser, parked by some other cars, obviously waiting to pick people up. That did it, knowing he was waiting for me made me stand up and get my butt into gear. I grabbed my carry on bag and pulled my coat up tighter round me and stepped off the plane. And there he was. Charlie. He looked exactly the same as the last time I remembered seeing him, though maybe with a little less hair than before. He walked over to meet me.

"Hey Bells. You've grown." He smiled at me.

"Thanks, so have you." I smiled back.

"Well err, let's go get your bags." And with that we walked side by side in the silence that would be comfortable between us to go and get the few belongings I'd brought.

As Charlie drove me to his house in the cruiser, I knew this was how my life would be now. Rain, green, clouds, cold and more green. Forks was such a different place compared to Pheonix. I sighed as we passed, yet again, more green surroundings, rocks, tree trunks, floor, everything was green here. Charlie misread my frustrated sigh.  
"Don't worry, it's only another 10 minutes, then we'll be home." He assured me. His ten minutes turned out to be closer to twenty, and all of them were spent in silence. That's what I liked about Charlie, he didn't pry or pester. He certainly hadn't questioned my sudden, and quite shocking, decision to move out of my mom's in Pheonix, and in with him in Forks. Rainy, green, cloudy and cold Forks. The only place as a child I had absolutely loathed. And now, here I was, sentencing myself here. I would take some time falling into the routine with Charlie I had abandoned so long ago, when I had finally managed to stop coming here. Charlie pulled the cruiser onto the driveway of the house that was so familiar to me, even after all this time, it hadn't changed at all. As he parked I noticed an old red truck next to us.

"Who's here?" I asked him, assuming the occupants from the truck were already inside the house.

"Uh, well nobody's here." Charlie mumbled, not looking at me.

"So who's is the truck then?" I asked, confused now.

"Well, a friend of mine was selling it off, and well, I kinda bought it for you as a welcome home present, so, welcome home Bells." He turned to smile at me. I didn't know what to say. It was the nicest thing someone had done for me in a long time. It looked old, but it didn't bother me, it was mine.


	3. Suggested Ideas

I admired the truck for a while but Charlie prised me away from it saying I had plenty of time to look at the truck and that I should really unpack before tea. I agreed with him, reluctantly, and head up to my old bedroom. I walked in and it was as if somebody had taken my old bedroom and left it in a time capsule for me to return to it in the same state. There were only a couple of things different. I now had a proper bed in there, not the old crib. There was also a desk which had my old rocking chair next to it. And there on top of the desk was the most ancient looking computer I had ever seen in my life. It had a phone line connected to it and I was amazed that they had the internet when this thing was made. But even though it was ancient it had still cost Charlie money and I appreciated the thought that had gone into it. I assumed Renee must have _suggested_ that idea.  
Charlie had stayed at the door of my room and mumbled something about there being a game on and he left me to unpack. I sat on the bed, my bed, and stared out the window into the cloudy, misty distance. I sighed knowing that this feeling of emptiness and something missing would be how I felt for the rest of my time here in Forks. I unpacked my few clothes and put them into the wardrobe or stuffed them into a draw. I took some of my bathroom essentials, to the bathroom that I would be sharing with Charlie. I hoped he didn't like long showers because I did and if there wasn't enough hot water that would make life even more difficult for me to cope with.  
Once I'd finished and I'd had enough time to mope by myself I headed down the stairs and into the kitchen where I heard Charlie cluttering around.  
"What are you doing?" I asked Charlie who was head first into one of the cupboards. Charlie jumped and banged his head on the drawer above. He emerged rubbing his head.  
"Oh, hey Bells. I was looking for some more plates. Not used to having company for tea usually. I meant to get them out before but I forgot. I've found them now though" He smiled sheepishly, producing a handful of different plates. He placed them in the sink and started to wash them.  
"So what's for tea tonight then?" I asked.  
"Well I ordered pizza. I just thought it would be easier than cooking. You don't like pizza do you?" He started to panic.  
"Pizza's great dad, thanks." I smiled and started to help him set the table. The doorbell rang and Charlie disappeared down the hall to see to it, returning a few minutes later with the pizza. We both sat down and ate, not really talking much other than Charlie asking me how my flight had been and if I was feeling tired.  
"I don't really get lagged, it wasn't that far a flight was it?" Charlie just nodded and I remembered that he'd never actually flown before. When he'd come to stay in Pheonix he'd always driven from Forks. We finished in silence and I started to wash up the plates while Charlie cleared the rest of the table.  
"Leave them," Charlie came and stood by my side "You need to get your sleep, long day ahead of you tomorrow."  
"What do you mean long day?" I asked.  
"Well, I know how you said you'd wait until the next break to start school, but I didn't like to think of you just sat at home doing nothing. So I spoke to a few people, pulled a few strings, and they said you can start tomorrow. I know it's sudden and if you don't feel up to it tomorrow I won't force you to go right away." Charlie took over from me washing up. I didn't know what to say.  
"Th-thanks dad."  
"It's okay Bells. Now all you'll need to do to get your schedule and that is go to the main office. I can give you directions. Or I could take you tomorrow if you want, and pick you up?" He offered.  
"The directions will be fine thanks dad, you need to get to work." There was absolutely no way I was going to a new school in a cruiser. I knew that everybody would probably know I was the daughter of the chief, but there was no way I was going to flaunt it. Going in the cruiser would destroy any chance of having a social life at school.  
Charlie gave me clear directions of how to get to Forks High School. It was pretty simple really, just off the highway, not that far away. After that I stayed down for a bit with Charlie and watched some of whatever game it was he was watching but I soon felt tired and excused myself to bed. Regardless of how tired I was, I lay awake for a long time just thinking about starting school in the morning. I was grateful to Charlie for getting me in so soon but I was also scared stiff. There were around 350 students in the whole school, about half of the students in my year alone back in Pheonix. It was a frightening prospect to be in such a small school, especially if I had struggled to fit in at my school in Pheonix. If in a school so huge I hadn't managed to find many friends, how was I going to cope in tiny Forks High School?  
Eventually at some point I managed to drift off into a dreamless sleep.


End file.
